What a week it’s been for our client Thermador. The luxury kitchen appliance pioneer that introduced the world to so many amazing innovations has done it again. Actually, they’ve outdone themselves this time—and it was our pleasure to help get the word out. This week Thermador unveiled its Freedom Induction Cooktop at the CES Unveiled media event in Las Vegas.
First, a quick 101 on what induction is: it’s a technology that, unlike gas cooking, utilizes a magnetic field generated by alternating electronic current to efficiently produce heat directly onto the actual cookware, instead of transferring heat from gas flames to the cookware.
Thermador’s Freedom Induction, however, is the first full-surface induction appliance. It features the flexibility of a natural-mapping user interface that intelligently recognizes cookware size, shape and position to deliver heat without boundaries.
In a nutshell, there are no burners or circles on the Freedom Induction Cooktop surface. You can put your cookware wherever you like, move it around it at will, and control it with an iPad-like tracker.
Actually, we think Forbes did the best job of describing it: “The world’s sexiest stove.”
We’re getting a lot of this, actually. We never really considered referring to induction cooking as “pretty freaking great,” like Gizmodo.com did (along with many others, to that effect), though it’s tempting. Don’t get us wrong—there was plenty of enticing wordplay during our public relations pitch meetings and among the creatives in our advertising department when it came to finding ways to boast of our client’s innovative product. Instead, we opted to shelve gratuitous superlatives and let the product toot its own horn when it debuted.
As it turned out, the media said it best.
Media placements from newspapers, blogs, online magazines and tech/trade publications are exploding, to the point to where we can hardly keep track of them all. Check out the kinds of headlines we’ve been buried in since the big unveiling:
WIRED calls it, “the Techie Chef’s Dream.”
MSNBC put it blunly: “Smart Cooktop Knows Where Your Pots Are.”
San Francisco Chronicle said, “First Smart Phone, Now Smart Stovetop”
The coverage has been overwhelming. Best of all is the fact that this product has transcended Thermador into a new audience. No longer is Thermador’s news value limited to only “home/shelter-type” publications that only cover kitchens. Thermador has now expanded into entire new media outlets that have never considered appliances before. Techies are now writing about cooktops.
We love the way Popular Mechanics put it: “[the] Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop is an evolutionary leap,” and a “technological leap forward for home cooking.” The magazine also awarded Thermador its Editor’s Choice Award at the CES show.
In total, we estimate 80 million to 100 million online impressions from media coverage alone stemming from our Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop outreach.